‘Informal workers to benefit from P100 wage hike’

MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to an employers’ group’s claim, informal workers would also benefit from the proposed P100 legislated wage increase, according to labor group Partido ng Manggagawa.

“Minimum wage earners will get the P100 wage hike in full. Other workers in the formal sector will gain a portion of P100 through what is called wage distortion – wages above the minimum will have to be adjusted since the floor was raised,” the group’s chair Renato Magtubo said.

“Workers in the informal economy will also benefit since formal workers with more purchasing power will patronize their products and services. It is ordinary wage earners – not rich professionals or capitalists – who buy from street vendors, eat in carinderias, ride jeepneys and tricycles and purchase farmers’ and fishers’ produce in wet markets,” he added.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) previously said that only 10 percent of formal workers would benefit from the P100 wage hike bill pending before the Senate.

ECOP is peddling fake news and does not want to reduce its profit, Magtubo said. Three-quarters of the labor force, or more than 30 million workers, stand to benefit from a wage hike, he argued.

Under the law, wage setting is left to the regional tripartite wages and productivity boards, to ensure that any increase can be properly enforced.